Tapping from Dubai’s smartcity initiatives

Developing countries, like those in Africa, have the opportunity to leapfrog now-redundant technologies in developed nations and create truly smart cites.While cities including Cape Town and Nairobi are tipped to become the first cities to achieve this ‘smart status’, especially in Africa, going by the daily developments unfolding there, other countries, including Nigeria, which is also keen about driving development through ‘smart city’ initiatives have been tapped to take a cue from cities such as Dubai.

Indeed, many African cities are seen as ideal locations for smart city campaigns, as they are essentially being developed technologically in particular, from scratch. In other words, there are fewer complications. They are building the foundations, rather than undoing a load of work, which other major technological hubs in the world face on their path to becoming a smart city.

Tapping from Dubai, according to experts could be the magic wand for most emerging markets, such as Nigeria, which are desperate about 21st century developments.When it comes to using technology on a mass scale, the city of Dubai has always stood out as a gleaming example of innovation. It’s as if an entire sci-fi movie has come to life in one urban area.

Leaving aside the phenomenal architecture that has always made this city the king of the Middle East, Dubai’s recent adoption of cutting-edge technology has been making headlines in recent times. From drone taxis to robotic policing to fire-fighters with jetpacks — you name the technology and the people of Dubai will already have incorporated it into their daily life.

Interestingly, Dubai is going to run a paperless regime from 2021.While many municipal governments around the globe are only now beginning to explore smart city projects, Dubai is more than a decade into its smart city strategy. Reports have it that the United Arab Emirates is now in the process of shifting into phase two of its expansive smart city strategy.

The city wrapped up phase one of its smart city plans about two years ago. One part of that phase was the Smart Dubai Government initiative, which has already saved the government $1.17 billion in its 13 years of existence.After spending over two years working on benchmarking, creating a blue print, building the framework and testing services on a government level, the city is now working on delivering tangible benefits to the residents and visitors.

At the just concluded Gulf Information and Technology Exhibition (GITEX) in Dubai, with more than 150 000 attendees converged at the Dubai World Trade Centre to visit more than 4 000 exhibitors and 700 start-ups from over 100 different companies, several innovations were on display from flying cars to police robots and robots that can sing and play piano, to Blockchain technology that can be used to measure happiness, the future of technology is stunning! While Etisalat’s 5G network powered the flying cars, the city is pushing forward into Internet of Things (IoT) integration, embracing the burgeoning technology that is expected to generate $1.6 trillion in smart cities impact by 2025. A recent McKinsey Global Institute report predicts these IoT impacts will include $800 billion in transportation opportunities and $700 billion in healthcare.